Tuesday July 4, 3:32 PM




Army unrest in Ivory Coast but junta says in control
By Nicholas Phythian

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Soldiers in red bandanas cruised parts of Ivory Coast's
main city Abidjan in hijacked cars today, firing in the air and demanding
money from the ruling junta for their part in the West African country's
first coup in December.

Military ruler, General Robert Guei, told Reuters that the National Public
Salvation Committee (CNSP) junta was in control and said that junior
soldiers had been manipulated by politicians.

Sporadic shots rang out in the Plateau business and administrative district
after Guei's comments and after his communication minister went on state
television to appeal for calm and both men reported further unrest involving
soldiers upcountry.

Calm returned to most of Abidjan later but the city was at a standstill and
residents reported that most streets were empty.

"These are young people manipulated by politicians. Some got a bit heated,"
Guei told Reuters correspondent Anne Boher by telephone after a morning of
sporadic shooting in different parts of Abidjan.

Guei's communication minister, Navy Lieutenant Henri Cesar Sama Damalan, in
statements read on state television, urged the population to remain calm.

"The CNSP asks the soldiers to return to their barracks so that a solution
can be found in a calm and disciplined way," Sama said. "The CNSP undertakes
to do all that is necessary to protect people and property."

He told Reuters that much had already been done for the soldiers. He told
Radio France International that the junta would negotiate, taking account of
the soldiers demands and the country's means but he declined to specify who
the manipulating politicians were.

The shooting spread panic in Abidjan, commercial capital of the world's top
cocoa producer. In December, the city was the focus of the traditionally
stable country's first coup since independence from France in 1960.

World cocoa prices rose just over one percent on the news.

ARMY UNREST UPCOUNTRY TOO

Sama and residents in the second city Bouake said soldiers had been shooting
in the air there. Guei said soldiers had attacked a bank in the northern
city of Korhogo.

Bouake residents reported soldiers in red headbands of a kind worn during
the December coup, looting a public treasury there.

Witnesses reported soldiers patrolling shopping districts in Abidjan to
prevent looting but businessmen reported dissident soldiers turning up in
red headbands offering them protection -- for a price.

Sama and military sources said that initially as few as 10 junior
soldiers - - including sergeants and corporals -- were involved but that
others had joined them as the protest spread.

Disgruntled soldiers had left Akouedo military camp on the eastern outskirts
of the city with their weapons in the early hours of Tuesday morning,
military sources added.

A sergeant launched the December coup from Akouedo after seizing the armoury
following a dispute over allowances for soldiers returning from a U.N.
peacekeeping mission to the Central African Republic.

Tuesday's shooting was sporadic, suggesting soldiers firing in the air
rather than sustained clashes, but soldiers commandeered private cars in the
street and set up road blocks in different parts of the city.

One witness spoke of shooting in the vicinity of the presidency, an
administrative complex across town from Guei's home.

Guei and Sama said negotiations had begun and that a group of young soldiers
had been demanding special payments for their part in the December coup.

"Today...around 3 a.m. some soldiers of the Ivorian army, who for weeks have
been asking the head of state for six million CFA each as war booty, came
out," Sama said. "The CNSP, faced with this situation, asks the people to
trust it and to remain calm."

Military officials said that Guei, who returned to Abidjan late on Monday
from a nationwide tour ahead of a July 23 referendum on a new constitution,
was at a camp housing loyalist paramilitary gendarmes.

Guei and Sama said the junta could not devote all the country's money to the
army.

AIRPORT OPEN

Sources at the city's airport said it was open and that at least two flights
arrived in the morning but business sources said that work at the country's
main port Abidjan had ground to a halt. Shops, banks and offices in the city
centre remained closed.

Witnesses in the suburbs and in the city centre reported soldiers ordering
drivers from their vehicles, telling them to collect them from army
headquarters on Wednesday.

Reuters correspondent Alistair Thomson had his car seized by a commando, who
took his mobile phone number and promised to return the vehicle.

On June 22, rumours of a fresh coup attempt sparked panic in Abidjan and
elsewhere in the country, drawing a swift denial from the junta.

Guei, who has been gradually asserting his authority, has promised to
restore civilian rule, with presidential and legislative elections in
September and October. He is widely believed to be planning to run for
president himself.


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